If Only For A Minute
by BrokenAndDiscarded
Summary: Ta da! Its a Danny/Betty romance! Since there are hardly any written I decided to make my own. Please give it a read and review! Thanks!


Author's Note:   
  
Ok this is my first ever Pearl Harbor fic so go easy on me! This is a Danny/Betty romance because I thought they would make such a cute couple. I mean honestly, why would Betty get engaged to a guy like Red, it wasn't as if he was funny, intelligent, or even handsome? And the love thing between Danny and Evelyn was kinda forced if you ask me; there was little, if any, chemistry. In my opinion it was just a rebound relationship for Evelyn. Danny and Betty are both around the same age and kind of young in character, very naïve. I know Danny and Betty hardly talk one word to each other during the movie but I'm pretending they do k? Hehe.  
  
This story starts when all of them - Danny, Rafe, Evelyn, and the girls - are at the bar before Rafe leaves the nest morning for England.   
  
Here it goes so please read ~ review ~ enjoy!  
  


**If Only For A Minute  
**

  


*Jasmine*  


  
Soft jazz music played from a band and young army men and their girlfriends all swirled around, dazed with love and youth. The air was thick with the smell of booze and women's perfume and it was sticky warm, the humid kind of weather that makes skin glisten and moist. Outside the gentle waves lapped at Pearl Harbor's coast, caressing it to sleep, and a heavy swollen moon hung high in the sky, pouring through the windows and bathing the bar in a metallic glow. The military base was quiet and peaceful; for tonight at least its true meaning, a place of war, was forgotten and the young people did what they do best, drink and dance the night away.   
  
A young man, Danny, sat in a padded booth, staring at his glass of amber beer in boredom, seemingly ignoring the dancing blissful soldiers around him. His shaggy brown hair brushed his forehead and his thick dark eyebrows peaked above his intense, smoldering eyes. Danny's face was handsome and chiseled and yet somber looking in contrast. His muscular tan form was adorned in a nice shirt and pants, unusual for the man who either wore his uniform or a casual jeans and tee shirt ensemble.   
  
A relatively pretty woman sat on the very farthest, opposite end of the booth and glanced up at him in an unsure, embarrassed manner. Her cheeks were a flushed pink and her big dark-framed glasses fell to the tip of her nose, to which she would quickly push them back up. Her short curly brown hair fell into her face and she bit her lip modestly. Her crush on Danny was almost painfully obvious and she fidgeted with the buttons of her white silk blouse, hoping he might ask her to dance.   
  
Danny was dully aware of her yearning to dance with him yet did not make any attempt to do so. He wasn't very self-assured when it came to girls, never had been,and even if he knew slightly that she fancied him, he couldn't bring himself to ask her. Call it a lack of self-esteem, call it the basic young boyhood doubt that still lingered with him even now; whatever it was didn't matter. The young woman looked at him forlornly and sighed, feeling hideously ugly just then. She stood from the booth, her long black skirt brushing against her calves, and walked away – home to her dormitory no doubt to cry her eyes out.   
  
The young man watched her go with a ping of regret; maybe he should have tried harder to overcome his own self-awareness and approach her with at least a hello. Too late now though, he thought, and took a swig of his beer.   
  


*  


  
The night wore on and outside the moon grew faded, whispering of a day to come soon, ebbing into the sky with the peaking rays of a morning sun. Danny had sat alone for most of the night, occasionally visited by a young woman who batted her mascara matted eyelashes at him but was quickly bored of his lack of interest and flounced off. Rafe and Evelyn hadn't left each other's side on the dance floor the entire time, he whispering sweet words into her ear and she giggling modestly as they spun around slowly. Danny watched them, slightly envious; they were so in love that everyone disappeared to them, as if they were in their own world, when would he feel that way? Maybe never.   
  
The beer dwindled down to nothing but a few drops, indeed he'd gone through a few and lost count of how many by now. With blurred distorted vision, Danny glanced around for his waitress. A young woman passed by then, her long blonde hair curled and bouncing down her shoulders and her slim figure adorned in a breezy pink flower patterned dress that came to just above her knees. Though her face was turned away from him as she walked by, he thought she was his bar maid.   
  
"Uh excuse me, miss," Danny called to gain her attention and reached a hand out to grasp her slender wrist. Her skin was smooth and creamy under his touch; the sheer warmth singed his fingertips.   
  
The girl twirled around and her hair spun like bands of sunlight burning through a clear day's sky. Her face was heart shaped, with high cheekbones alive with a pink blush, and her skin was fair and perfect. He was a little stunned by her appearance; she was perhaps the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Her dewy pale blue eyes regarded him with mirth and her lips, stained with a crimson lipstick, turned upwards into a pretty smile that set her face glowing. "Yes?" she asked and her voice was pure honey, smooth and sweet.   
  
The young man gazed at her for a moment, speechless, and then fought to stammer out weakly, "O... I'm sorry. I thought you were my waitress..." His face flushed with embarrassment and even though he wanted to look away with shame, he couldn't take his eyes off her, she was far too captivating.   
  
The flaxen haired woman burst out with a laugh that shook the heavens, it was free and lively and so much like her. "Do I look like a barmaid?" she inquired, faking indignity, and her teeth shown white like ivory in the dark.   
  
Her laugh threw him off and he found himself unable to breath properly. "Yes... No, I mean no... I'm awfully sorry," he stammered. What the hell is the matter with me? he silently shouted at himself in disgust.   
  
The beautiful woman smiled at him, amused at his befuddled state, and said without pretense, "That's alright, I don't mind. Can I sit here with you?"   
  
Danny decided it best just to keep his mouth shut and he nodded his head in reply instead. The young woman plopped herself down onto the padded booth and slid in until she was directly facing the young man. She sighed happily and closed her eyes for a moment, the golden fringe of her lashes brushing the high rises of her cheeks, as if relishing the sensation. "Ah this feels nice. I haven't been off my feet all day," she said, still with her eyes shut.   
  
The man's brain was starting to take control of him now, even though it was hard to do sitting beside such a ravishing beauty, and he asked, "Are you a nurse?"   
  
She opened her eyes then, her icy blue orbs staring at him with a true honesty to them, and the woman responded, "Yea... What do you do?"   
  
"I'm a fighter pilot," Danny said mechanically and without much thought to bragging or any of that. It was just what he was, a matter of fact, nothing to be proud of.   
  
A smirk came over the girl's features and a strand of golden hair fell into her face but she didn't care to brush it back just then. "A flyboy eh?" she asked with a tinge of a girlish giggle to her tone, "... You don't strike me as the dare devil type."   
  
A soft lopsided grin came over his handsome, well-defined face and he chuckled, "O I don't?"   
  
The young woman shook her head and the moonlight fell into the gentle rolling curves of her cheeks. "No. Not that I exactly come off as Saint Mary myself though," she laughed.   
  
Danny didn't say anything to that but to him, she looked like a compassionate person... Like an angel on earth. But he wasn't going to say that, even in his head it sounded stupid. Instead he gazed at her and said, "Well you're right then, I'm not the dare devil type. That's more my friend, Rafe, he's always doing stunts and stuff. He flies because he loves attention..."   
  
The beauty raised a thin gilded eyebrow and leaned in a bit farther into the table, closer to him than he felt comfortable and yet he didn't pull back. "Why do you fly?" she asked then, a simple enough question.   
  
The young man shrugged, trying to stop himself from becoming hypnotized by her gaze, and replied, "Me? I just love it, I guess; always have since I was a boy. There ain't nothing finer on earth than being in a plane up high, gliding against the clouds."   
  
He thought she might laugh at him then, at his silly passion, but she didn't. Instead she merely nodded and said playfully, "It sounds nice. You'll have to take me up with you sometime." She never fidgeted nor gave meek glances, the young woman was very sure of herself and confident, Danny noticed with both admiration and envy.   
  
"How about you? Why are you a nurse?" he asked and found himself being drawn in closer to her and her warm carefree smile. Somehow her cheerful mood was rubbing off on him and the cloud of somber that clung to him was being burned away.  
  
The woman laughed gaily at herself and her cerulean hued eyes grew bright and fiery, "Because it was my only way out of Nebraska, that's why."   
  
"O," he replied and found himself laughing along with her. There was just something about her that made him feel less isolated and sullen, less like himself.   
  
The girl leaned all the way over now, her long wavy strands tumbling down onto the table, and she was so close he could vaguely feel the heat of her breath, the warmth from her smile. "My name's Betty by the way. What's yours, pilot?"   
  
Danny felt intoxicated by her, the air smelt sweet of her floral perfume and it dazed his mind. "Danny," he replied numbly and was distracted by her lips, the way they flickered up at the edges to create a red crescent moon and appeared soft, if he were to claim them with his own he knew they'd feel like smooth silk under his mouth.  
  
"Well, Danny, do you wanna get out of here? This place is starting to get boring," she offered up an excuse to leave the stuffy bar and she reached her hand over to grab his.   
  
His heart climbed up into his throat at the touch of her warm flesh and he could feel the pulse of her wrist against his. He gulped out, "Sure."   


  
*  


  
The two young people left the bar and stumbled out into the warm breezy night air. The light of the moon bathed the wild emerald landscape in a silent, sorrowful blue veil and the water lay ahead of them, roaring and rolling because it never rests. The soft winds cooled their burning excited flesh and the ocean called to them with its gentle murmured voice.   
  
Betty looked up at Danny eagerly and pressed down gently on his strong large hand. "Let's go to the beach," she said excitedly and began to tug him along. He followed wordlessly, too amazed to speak.   
  
Betty led him along a dirt path, well worn by military issued boots, and down a slopping hill, patched with long sparse sea grass dancing with the wind. They came to the shore and the young woman quickly disposed of her heels, kicking them off to the side to wait for her eventual return. Then she ran off, her dress and hair fluttering like a candle flame caught in a breeze, and her flitty laughter followed her.   
  
Danny watched her a moment before hurriedly untying his shoes and chucking them aside. The white sands filled between his toes and shifted under his soles as he began to run after her, kicking up a thin spray of grit. "Betty, wait!" he called into the night air, somewhat afraid she'd run too far out and disappear into sea foam, as if she was too good to be true anyway.   
  
The reflection of the luminescent moon sparkled in the ocean, tarnished by lapping waves, and the smell of salt filled their nostrils. She looked like a shadow moving far off in the distance and she turned to look back at him over her shoulder, her face as white as porcelain china. "Come on, slow poke! I don't have all night!" Betty chortled gleefully and sprinted on, her slender legs carrying her across the sand dunes and near the water.  
  
"Slow poke?" Danny yelled in mock indignity, "Well that's it! You're gonna get it now!" He felt like a little kid again, playing in the lake by the back of his family's property. Betty brought this out in him and he liked to feel this way, he liked to feel young and free and indifferent to everything but play.   
  
As he neared closer to Betty, she got her first feeling of the ocean. Icy salt water lapped around the bottoms of her naked feet and she squealed in a mixture of surprise and happiness. She pulled the hem of her skirt up to a scandalous level, just beyond the middle of her creamy thighs, and the wind scattered her golden locks about her face.   
  
Danny was near enough now and suddenly snatched her up by her slender waist, causing a scream of shock to emit from the young woman's throat. He pulled her into his arms, cradling her like a babe, and looked down at her with a mischievous smirk playing across his lips. As his feet sunk deeper into the wet dark sand, his eyes smoldered and crackled in the moonlight and he asked teasingly, "Would you like a bath Betty?"   
  
The young blonde's eyes went wide and she half laughed, half yelled, "No! You wouldn't dare!" She squirmed in his grasp, trying to get free, but to no avail for he remained firmly holding onto her.   
  
"I wouldn't?" he inquired flippantly and then stared down at her solemnly, as if seriously considering it. "It all depends... Am I a slow poke now?"   
  
Betty shook her head and pleaded comically, "O no. In fact, I'd say you're the fastest pilot around."  
  
He replied gloatingly, "That's better."   
  
Somehow though the laughter had dissipated around them and the smiles faded slightly. Danny was staring down at her and his eyes glittered dark like the slippery undersides o friverbed rocks, his handsome face so close to hers that their lips were only a few inches apart. His hand brushed against the smooth skin of her thigh and he became aware of a yearning stirring deep within him. Her eyes are so beautiful, he thought to himself as he got lost in her depthless blue orbs that gazed at him and were tinged with the same longing he felt. His brown hair fell before his face and she breathlessly reached a hand up and smoothed it away, her soft gentle touch sending a shiver down his spine.   
  
They stayed like this for a moment before Danny realized he should put her down again. He placed her on her feet and Betty looked a little regretful before recovering once more, a playful crimson smile spreading across her beautiful face.   
  
"Thanks, flyboy," she exclaimed and moved an arm towards him as if to pat him on the back. Instead however, she suddenly and playfully pushed him on the shoulder. Though she was probably less than half as strong as him, her tap caught him off guard and sent him reeling on the backs of his heels. Danny lost his balance and with a shout of surprise, plummeted down into the freezing water.   
  
He looked up at her through his bangs of brown hair with an exaggerated, miserable expression and pouted, "Not funny." The cold ocean water seeped into the rear of his pants and numbed his flesh.  
  
Betty couldn't halt the giggles that bubbled up out of her throat as she replied, "I know, I'm so sorry!" Then she leaned over slightly and presented a hand to him. "Come on, you sore sight, I'll help you up," she suggested in an attempt at a peace offering.   
  
It was almost too easy. With a devilish grin the young man clasped her hand and said mischievously, "By all means, allow me." Then with a soft tug he sent her off her feet and headfirst downward. Betty gasped as she slammed into Danny, knocking him onto his back with a thump. She landed sprawled out over him, her hands against his warm swelling chest and her face very close to his.   
  
"You're such a sneak,"she trumpeted, her laughter brushing his face. Her long wavy blonde hair fell in torrents down her sides and danced over the water, droplets of sea spray clinging to her face and making it glisten.  
  
Danny chuckled also, but he was too distracted by the blue of her eyes and the flush of her skin to get caught up in laughter. "Look whose talking. You nearly killed me when you pushed me over," he exclaimed in exaggeration. The cool ocean waves were washing over his brown hair and breaking in clouds of creamy sea foam, seeping icy chill into his ears.   
  
Betty rolled her eyes and snorted, "O please, it was only a little tap." Now she was looking directly at him however and her smile was gentle now, the red lipstick faded away to reveal the natural pink of her lips. "A love tap," she added softly, almost bashfully, the first time he had ever seen her be timid.   
  
His dark eyes glittered and his handsome face was framed by strands of chestnut hair plastered to his forehead. The young man became aware of her chest so close to his now, swelling like ocean waves with each deep breath, and he could sense the pulsing of her beating heart. He felt a desire in him and recognized the same look in her crystal eyes, brushed by a fringing of long golden lashes all hung with strands of water droplets like tiny glass beads. He wrapped his strong arm around her waist, just above her rear, and pulled her closer to him, making her feel intensely secure. "I like you better without lipstick on," he said and brought his other hand up to brush his calloused thumb against her soft, lush lips, moistening them with the water already dripping from his fingers.   
  
The young woman fell into his touch, relishing ever sensation. "Why is that?" she whispered, her orbs of blue looking intoxicated with love and simple bliss. Her floral printed dress was tight to her now, stuck to her skin by cold water, and it hugged every curve of her perfect, slender body.   
  
Danny stared at her and replied, "Because then its better to do this..." The sky of dark velvet lay above him, making her seem like an angel flying high up. He moved his head foreword and pressed his wet lips to hers, an intense passionate embrace of flesh against flesh. The world spun and the waves fell silent as they kissed, their bodies exploding with pleasure and joy. Betty moved her arms up around his neck and Danny's hand went to cupping her soft cheek, stroking it with his thumb. The kiss was deep and powerful, passion traveling between their lips. When they finally broke their exchange, they were dazed and dizzy.  
  
Betty looked in awe and slightly taken aback. Her cheeks were blushed with pink and she said breathlessly, "... I never felt a kiss like that before."  
  
The man gazed up at her over him with a captivated expression, he too in the same condition. "Never?" he inquired, winded slightly and amazed.   
  
The blonde girl raised her slender golden eyebrows and responded, "Don't get me wrong, I've been kissed many times in my hometown of Nebraska, by small town school boys and all... But this... This one felt different." Her own words confused her and yet she knew why this kiss was more intense than all the others. She loved Danny... As hard as that was to believe and even if they just met, she loved him and she felt it deep within her.   
  
Danny nodded in his own understanding and merely said, "Me either."  
  


*  


  
The sun was rising over the white-capped peaks of ocean waves, spreading its warm golden rays like paint being brushed over the blue canvas sky. The calm of morning was already falling over Pearl Harbor, bringing with it a promise of a new day.   
  
Betty and Danny sat alone on a sand dune, her head leaning against his broad shoulder. They were silent together, taking in the sunrise and each other's company. Their clothes were still damp and clinging to them slightly, strands of hair glistening in the light.   
  
The young woman looked blissful and sleepy, her hooded cerulean eyes reflecting twin rising suns. She whispered in drowsy awe, "Its so beautiful."   
  
"Yea," Danny agreed, the warm wind fluttered strands of his shaggy brown hair, "Its about the second most beautiful thing I've ever seen..."  
  
Betty asked innocently, "What's the first?"   
  
He looked down at her slightly and there was a gentle smile on his face. "You," he merely replied.  
  
The girl's pink lush lips turned upwards at the corners and there was no denying a soft blush that overcame her high cheeks. She didn't say anything in disagreement nor a humble word, Betty was happy that in his eyes she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen... He was the same to her.   
  
A few moments passed and grains of sand rolled over her bare toes, blown by the breeze. Finally Betty spoke in a wispy, nostalgic tone, "... I use to watch sunrises all the time in Nebraska – me and my friends all sprawled out on our backs in the hay field after we'd snuck out for a long night with the boys. They were never as pretty as these here in Pearl... But I still remember them." She shifted her eyes slightly to look up at him, the flecks of emerald green in them sparkling and dancing in the sunlight, and she inquired, "Do you miss where you came from, Danny?"   
  
The young man didn't meet her gaze but instead looked out into the rolling, glistening ocean. There was a tinge to his voice when he spoke, as if there was a dull, lingering pain in each word, "No, not really."   
  
Betty offered sadly and pressed her cheek into his shoulder, comforting him with her warmth, "I'm sorry..."   
  
"Don't be," he responded flatly, "There isn't much for me to miss. My pa wanted me gone and my ma's dead. As for the farm, I always hated doing plow work and backbreaking labor...Before I left I made a promise to myself that I'd never return back there."   
  
Betty watched his face, the strong outline of his chin against the sky, and then nodded slightly, turning her eyes away. She gazed at the sunrise once more and after a long quiet moment, she spoke, her voice so stark against the serine silence of the beach, "I do... I miss everything about my home, every minute of the day."   
  
Her heart was heavy as she thought of the little white country house she grew up in with the chipping paint and the wind chimes dancing on the porch, her momma with the light blonde hair the color of cotton baking apple pies over the range in the kitchen, the hay that fluttered in the breeze and tickled her nostrils when she would sit there alone to think. Then Betty said, so solemn and serious and quiet that it was almost lost to the wind, "Except right now, sitting here with you. Then, for at least one minute of one day, I forget."   
  
Danny glanced down at her and she met his gaze, their eyes staring into each other's as if to simply thank one another for being with them, being there. "And for one minute I forget... that I don't..." he said softly, the darkness of his stare reflecting gratefulness.   
  
Betty took in his words and then asked, "Do you think this will turn into one of those moments? You know, the kinds that make up the scrapbook of your life and stay with you forever... The ones you never loose." The true depths of Betty's thoughtfulness were now suddenly revealing itself to Danny and he found himself undeniably attracted and captivated by it.  
  
The young man couldn't take his eyes off her; he stared at the twin suns rising in her clear blue orbs and felt the soft golden touch of her locks under his fingertips as he stroked her hair. "I hope so," he whispered just to her, "I'd like to remember this forever."   
  
Danny moved his face in closer to hers, again welcoming the feeling of her hot breath upon his flesh, and he kissed her. This time it was soft and innocent, a means of showing their love. She ran a hand up into his thick mane before placing it around his neck and he took claim to her slender waist. Sand stuck to their skin and clothing and made friction between their bodies. The gentle kiss went on as the sun rose.  
  


*  


  
Closing Notes:   
  
Awww!! Pure romantic sap I know but I loved every minute of it, how about you? I hope you did! Hmm now only if I could convince the directors to make a Pearl Harbor II: Alternate Story Line... ^_~   
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